Accredited bodies are still required to maintain information of the persons in charge and to present the information along with the other a part of the material prepared for the assessment visit. All changes in the persons in charge must be recorded. Accredited bodies have to notify FINAS without any delay, if there are changes in the persons in charge between the assessment visits.

This change in the procedure takes effect from the beginning of the next assessment process of the accredited body. Current assessment processes will be carried out according to the former procedure concerning the list of persons in charge.

Persons in charge are person or persons, who are responsible of the accredited activities and the validity of the results (see in more detail below). The responsibility may be shared between two or more persons (so called group responsibility), but in this case the responsibilities of each person must be clearly described. If the accredited body has a flexible scope, persons in charge of the flexible scope must be defined.

In the laboratory, the person in charge is responsible among other things the development of the methods, validation, verification, monitoring the development of the field, analysing the results, reporting, analysing the results from the comparison measurements and problem-solving concerning the testing/calibration activities.

In the clinical laboratories, the medical responsibility must be defined and recorded.

In the inspection bodies, the person in charge has the overall responsibility of the performance of the inspection and the person in charge must have qualification and experience from the field of inspection in question.

In the proficiency test provider bodies, the person in charge is responsible of the planning and execution of the proficiency test rounds as a whole.

In the certification bodies, the persons in charge are responsible of the whole range of activities covered by the accreditation decision. In addition, there may be one or more product managers, who are responsible of a certain certification scheme or sector.   

In the verification bodies, the persons in charge are responsible of either all or individual areas of verification activities (emission trading, operation aid etc.).

According to criteria stated in the accreditation decision, the accredited bodies have an obligation to notify FINAS without any delay of all the essential changes that have an effect on the accredited activities. Notification is required even if the changes would not require immediate actions. After the receipt of the notification FINAS analyses how the effect of the changes will be assessed. In addition to the persons in charge, essential changes are

• changes in the legal, organizational or commercial status or ownership
• changes in the organization, management or other key persons
• essential changes in the operation principles
• changes in the resources (personnel, equipment) and premises
• changes in the accredited scope
• other factors, that have an effect on the body's ability to fulfil the accreditation criteria
  
  Condition are included in the application for accreditation and the body has committed to follow the conditions by signing the application.
  In addition, the conditions are attached to each accreditation decision and they are available in the FINAS web pages.